BENGALURU: On a rainy evening, we headed to Bellandur to check out the new menu at The Irish Pub at RMZ Eco World.
The journey and poor roads made us impatient to try out some good food and drinks so we could forget the hour it took to get there. When we finally arrived, we quickly realised that we were one of the only few groups of people to be there, despite it being a Saturday night.
Irish Pub is quite large, and sports a rugged, vintage look. Although the interiors are are hard on the eyes, nothing exactly screams ‘Irish’ about it. The music was mainly commercial tracks, which didn’t seem to go with the rustic feel of the place.
We began with some cocktails. The Inverted Bird, which has vodka, apple, juice, passion fruit extract and an inverted pint of beer, is quite strong with overwhelming liquory taste.
If you’re in the mood for something fresh and fruity, do give the French Red Head a try, which is a combination of vodka, watermelon and fresh basil. A personal favourite was the Jack Sparrow, which has a good dose of Jack Daniels, banana puree and pineapple juice. Although the combination sounds odd, this is actually a great cocktail with the perfect blend of flavours. The bar menu has a diverse set of drinks, along with all your staples.
Coming to the food, we started the meal with Armagh Mushroom Bites, which were basically mini brioche buns with a creamy mushroom filling. Although tasty, it was nothing spectacular.
The Mini Chicken Tacos were alright, and the taco shell was slightly stale. There were a few different kinds of fries, all of which looked appealing. We tried the Minced up Fries, that had fries topped with chicken bolognese, cheddar, boiled egg and crispy onion. This is something you’d definitely want to try while drinking, although we’d have liked a more amount of cheddar to cut through the strong flavour of the bolognese.
We got the Sourdough Fondue Bowl next - hollow sourdough filled a three-cheese sauce, served with chargrilled broccoli, smoked sausage, grilled chicken bits and roasted sweet potato. Overall, a good dish, and the secret hero was the roasted sweet potato that went beautifully with the cheese sauce.
We started our mains with the Beer Can Roast Chicken – stout flavoured grilled chicken served with roast potatoes and vegetables – and it was average, mainly due to the gamey chicken. The Portofino Grilled Fish had (slightly dry) pieces of fish with lumpy, flavourless mashed potatoes and string beans.
The best part of the meal was the Irish House Burger. This tenderloin patty, topped with a jalapeno-cheese sauce, cheddar melts, a sunny-side up egg and caramelised onions served with fries and gherkins was what saved the meal for us. We also gave the Original Italian Spaghetti with prawns a try, which was a traditional tomoto, basil, garlic sauce pasta, but very on-point with the flavours.
For desserts, we tried the Irish River Dance (purely for the sake of the name), for which we only had one word – overwhelming. Served in a massive beer glass, this mish-mash of brownie bits, dark chocolate, vanilla ice cream, chocolate truffles, nuts, caramel sauce and fresh lager beer - is for the one hoping to fall deep into a sugar coma. The Nutty Caramel Pie was actually quite good, as peanut butter, caramel and dark chocolate are a combination made in heaven for food.
The Irish Pub in Bellandur is ideal for colleagues from the nearby offices to grab a post-work drink and snacks, because the rather unexciting food is perhaps not worth braving the journey for.
Cost for two: Rs 700